Kathleen J. Hall, formerly FARO Technologies' (FARO+0.6%) managing director for the Americas region, has been appointed to the newly-created position of COO. She'll be in charge of operations, and tasked with "transforming the Company's regional operating teams into a single, global operating platform in order to leverage operating efficiencies in line with the Company's long-term growth objectives."

FARO also states (as previously announced) EMEA/Asia-Pac managing director Joe Arezone is being promoted to the role of chief commercial officer. The company saw CFO Katherine Murphy-Wolf depart in March, and CEO Jay Freeland depart last November. Chairman Simon Raab has been serving as interim CEO.

FARO Technologies and CFO Laura Murphy-Wolf "have mutually agreed" Wolf will resign. The company insists her departure "was not related to any disagreement between Ms. Murphy-Wolf and the Company relating to the Company's financial reporting or condition, policies or practices."

FARO will hold off on naming a new CFO until a permanent CEO is named - chairman/co-founder Simon Raab has been serving as interim CEO since December, following the departure of Jay Freeland. Until then, the finance team will be led by Robert Seidel, FARO's newly-appointed VP of finance and IR, and Janet D'Anjou, the company's controller.

On the earnings call (transcript), chairman/interim CEO Simon Raab declared FARO will "focus on six verticals and will restructure the organization all the way from product development to sales to ensure that those verticals are effectively served." The verticals: Metrology, factory automation, product design, BIM-CIM, public safety, and 3D consulting & solution development.

As part of the effort, Joe Arezone, previously FARO's European/Asian sales chief, has been promoted to the newly-created role of chief commercial officer.

Noting shares are down over 50% YTD and over 20% since the company posted a Q3 miss and announced CEO Jay Freeland is stepping down, Needham's James Ricchiuti has upgraded FARO Technologies to Buy. His target is $37.

Ricchiuti: "We upgrade the stock for 2 main reasons. First, we believe cost-reduction actions FARO announced after Q3 have provided upside to our 2016 estimates, even if revs don’t show a meaningful recovery. Second, while FARO shares are up 18% from their lows in early Nov., the shares are near historical trough valuations going back 5 yrs. While we see no clear evidence yet of meaningful improvement in FARO’s fundamentals, we view the risk-reward opportunity as attractive, with FARO trading at less than 0.9x [estimated 2016 EV/sales]"